A leading Japanese newspaper revives the old, curious claim that by posting web content one acquires the right to order others not to link to it. [NY Times via Sullivan] Earlier here, here, etc.
The very essence of the Web, in fact the reason it is called the World Wide “Web”, is that it is a system of documents that link to one another. If you don’t believe in the linking part of it, then you should stay off the web.
This is like outlawing bibliographies. The ability to reference other works is almost the complete underlying basis of modern scholarship. It’s hard to stand on the shoulders of giants when someone keeps kicking their legs out from under them.
What’s really weird is that it appears that they are claiming that no one can even link to the top-level of their site without permission. This is not simply a ban on deep linking.
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I wish I’d thought of that. Can you imagine how many inbound links that claim will result in?
The very essence of the Web, in fact the reason it is called the World Wide “Web”, is that it is a system of documents that link to one another. If you don’t believe in the linking part of it, then you should stay off the web.
This is like outlawing bibliographies. The ability to reference other works is almost the complete underlying basis of modern scholarship. It’s hard to stand on the shoulders of giants when someone keeps kicking their legs out from under them.
What’s really weird is that it appears that they are claiming that no one can even link to the top-level of their site without permission. This is not simply a ban on deep linking.